Ocean Cools and Air Temps Follow

Written by Ron Clutz

June Sea Surface Temperatures (SSTs) are now available, and we can see ocean temps dropping further after a short pause and resuming the downward trajectory from the previous 12 months.

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Inside the Ludicrous Plan to Send a Spacecraft to our Neighbor Star

Written by Shannon Stirone

As a species, we have made magnificent strides in robotic space exploration in the past decade. From exploring Pluto close-up for the first time to discovering our solar system is rife with underground liquid oceans, we now understand our little neighborhood of planets and moons better than ever before. It’s time to start talking about how we are going to explore the stars.

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Smallest-ever star discovered by astronomers

Written by University of Cambridge

The smallest star yet measured has been discovered by a team of astronomers led by the University of Cambridge. With a size just a sliver larger than that of Saturn, the gravitational pull at its stellar surface is about 300 times stronger than what humans feel on Earth.

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Private company plans to bring Moon rocks back to Earth in three years

Written by ERIC BERGER

After several years of secrecy, a company called Moon Express revealed the scope of its ambitions on Wednesday. And they are considerable. The privately held company released plans for a single, modular spacecraft that can be combined to form successfully larger and more capable vehicles. Ultimately the company plans to establish a lunar outpost in 2020 and set up commercial operations on the Moon.

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A fresh view on volcanic plumbing systems

Written by University of Oregon

The iconic El Capitan at Yosemite National Park in California contains a long-running record of magma injections that never breached the surface, instead freezing into the Earth's crust.

Volcanic eruptions such as Mount St. Helens’ in 1980 show the explosiveness of magma moving through Earth’s crust. Now geologists are excited about what uplifted granite bodies such as Yosemite’s El Capitan say about magma that freezes before it can erupt on the surface.

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